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Perhaps you haven't noticed it because you are a victim of the phenomenon. You called up your girlfriends on your cotton candy pink cel phone adorned with sparkly cupcake-shaped charms, went out to get frozen yogurt topped with Cap'n Crunch cereal, and sat around talking about the "cuuuuuuutest" Hello Kitty makeup bag at Sephora and gossiping about "boys"...just like all the other junior high girls.But wait. You're 35.
I was just reading an article about a new book called Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-Up, in which author Christopher Noxon says very plainly, "'People all over are refusing to act their age." Basically, grown-ups are going through a period of regression back to their childhoods. Though his book talks about the trend from a broad perspective, I couldn't help but think how very true this trend is in food. I mean, how else do you explain a craze for cupcakes, those tiny treats that we ate as children in our homeroom birthday parties? What about the recent throwback to "retro" foods that many of us associate with growing up in mom's kitchen like macaroni and cheese, and meatloaf?
Are we regressing as a society? I know I am. Are you one of these grownups who still lives with his/her parents, postpones marriage, watches cartoons, all the while eating Hello Kitty Pop-tarts, dipping your dinosaur (chicken) nuggets in ketchup and having a Twinkie for desert? If so, what other "rejuvenile" foods are you eating?
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10-03-2006 @10:37AM Susan said... Maybe this is just in reaction to our society that moves and changes at breakneck speed and our lifestyles that leave people feeling more isolated than ever before. Did that author possibly entertain the theory that we are indeed reaching out for comfort, but not because we don't want to grow up? Perhaps we are just seeking a sense from a time we felt safer and less overwhelmed.
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10-03-2006 @1:27PM peggy said... i just figured it was a by-product of not having any kids. but my husband (of 17 years) and i are everything you just described. we watch cartoons while eating lucky charms and i am obsessed with hello kitty. we love any food that is easy and fun...corn dogs, pop tarts, tater tots, etc.....now i don't feel quite so guilty.
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10-03-2006 @1:27PM claireB said... I have a good excuse because I'm pregnant, but all I've wanted to eat lately is Easy Mac, PBJ sandwiches and Lucky Charms. But, I've always tended towards the kid's menu.
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10-03-2006 @6:08PM dlz said... and here i was, thinking i was just going through a period of recovered memories, then along comes a book to explain me into a new demographic corner.
*sigh* time to break out the looney toons and hershey's chocolate syrup.
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10-04-2006 @1:48PM cnoxon said... Resurgence of "retro foods" is definitely part of rejuvenile phenomenon described in my book... Other tasty examples: grilled cheese nights at posh restaurants like Campanille in LA; eateries like Cereal Barn and Peanut Butter Café in Bloomingfield, IN; and lines outside gourmet cupcake bakeries like Magnolia in N.Y and Sprinkles in L.A....
Beauty of these rejuvenile foods is how irony-free they are... other examples I discuss in book — from classic toys to comic books to kid games like dodgeball and rock paper scissors — have been rediscovered with heavy helpings of kitsch. Not so with candy or cupcakes or cereal. The very sight of a red velvet cupcake, for instance, instantly triggers a happy, wondrous childlike response. Gorgeous, tasty and quickly consumed, cupcakes are icons of kidhood. And as an added bonus, many of the masterminds creating new "grown up" versions of kidfoods are bringing whole new levels of sophistication and artistry to treats that have for too long been thought of as junky supermarket food. Bring on the gourmet popsicles!
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10-04-2006 @10:49PM Bebop said... I blame the hipsters in williamsburg for this regression. Damn them.
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